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Apple M1 (8-core)
The processor that opened the Apple silicon era reset every expectation for thin-and-light laptops: silent, cool, all-day battery, and single-core speed that humbled 2020's x86 flagships. Its limits are generational now.
Pros
- Historic performance-per-watt leap
- Fanless-capable in the MacBook Air
- Instant wake and all-day battery life
- Strong iGPU for its era
Cons
- 16GB memory ceiling
- Single external display limit on MacBook Air
- Multi-core long since outclassed
- LPDDR4X bandwidth shows its age
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Apple M1 (8-core)
General
- Announced
- 2020
- Process
- 5 nm
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 8
- Performance cores
- 4
- Efficiency cores
- 4
- Threads
- 8
- Boost clock
- 3.2 GHz
Integrated GPU
- iGPU
- Apple 8-core GPU
Memory
- Memory support
- LPDDR4X-4266
- Max memory
- 16 GB
Benchmarks
- Geekbench 6 (single)
- 2,340Bottom 38%
- Geekbench 6 (multi)
- 8,350Bottom 28%
- Cinebench R23 (single)
- 1,500Bottom 31%
- Cinebench R23 (multi)
- 7,760Bottom 25%
- PassMark
- 14,122Bottom 29%
Quick answers
Is the Apple M1 (8-core) good in 2026?
The Apple M1 (8-core) earns an Inno Score of 47.3/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. The processor that opened the Apple silicon era reset every expectation for thin-and-light laptops: silent, cool, all-day battery, and single-core speed that humbled 2020's x86 flagships. Its limits are generational now.
Does the Apple M1 (8-core) count as "Core i7 or equivalent"?
Its PassMark CPU Mark average is 14,122 (cpubenchmark.net, retrieved Sep 26, 2026), which puts it in Tier C of our CPU tier checker: older or low-power Core i7, and many recent Core i5 chips. It is an Arm-based chip, so a requirement that asks specifically for an Intel or AMD (x86-64) processor excludes it. Requirement pages word this differently, so check the exact wording with your department.
What are the key specs of the Apple M1 (8-core)?
Cores: 8 · Threads: 8 · Boost clock: 3.2 GHz
What are the closest alternatives to the Apple M1 (8-core)?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are Intel Core i5-1235U, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, Intel Core i5-1240P — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.
